Monday, September 20, 2010

I'm alive!

As evidenced from my lack of updates, I've been very busy. After having the summer off, I'm having a little bit of trouble getting back in my groove. I began teaching last week. It was nice to see the students again. The nature of my job lets me teach the same students each year. This system has its downfalls, but I mostly enjoy the benefits of knowing my students, their abilities and interests ahead of time. It makes my job easier. Especially compared to last year when I was so nervous to start teaching that I barely slept. Although, I'm still not getting enough sleep but that's ok.

I have been spending a lot of time with friends, more so than last year. I started to hole myself up in my apartment each weekend last year and avoid friends because I thought I didn't have time. I realized that spending time with people is a big part of getting work done. Especially if they are fellow writers and we can spend our time working together. Sundays have been a great day for working and hanging out at the Quiet Storm. I was there yesterday with Adrienne and Rebecca and we talked shop and worked through our pieces, while Rebecca's patient boyfriend Nate sat and listened. But it worked. All of us needed to talk through something and it helped us write later. Talking about it opened the flood gates, or the verbal explanation of a project idea helped us mold and shape this idea-blob in our heads. Before then, it didn't exist outside our heads.

We also talked about writing about our families. A new piece of mine is going to center around a family member and myself. I already have a handful of pages and a poem on the subject. That's also a fun new thing I'm trying: writing a poem AND an essay about something. I'm getting it out of my system on multiple levels. I'm hoping that the narrative will rub off on my poetry and the lyricism will show up in my prose.

Dear Outer Space

Welcome to Dear Outer Space. A space where my inner space is made outer. Where I attempt to explain the inner and outer with words. My bellybutton has been both an innie and an outie. I almost never rhyme. Don't forget your helmet. Avoid black holes on Tuesdays.